Next Time and the Time After That
by shipperjunkie
Summary: Damon and Elena reconnect one afternoon not too long after 3x22.


Elena was sitting on the couch, busily writing away in her journal, when Damon came home. She'd built herself a fire, tucked her shoes underneath the coffee table the way she knew he preferred, poured herself a glass of blood. And waited.

Besides helping her through her worst days, the ones that had her climbing the walls to try and escape the constant hunger, their relationship had dwindled down to nearly nothing. They'd carefully avoided each other in the wake of her transition and recommitment to Stefan, and on the rare occasions they did spend any time together they made a point of staying out of arm's reach.

In the wake of breaking things off with Stefan, they hadn't seen each other in several weeks.

Damon paused in the doorway, guarded and wary as he noted the journal, the fire, the shoes. "Hey," he said, shutting the door behind him as he walked into the parlor. His eyes slid over the room until they landed on the drinks cart. "Jeremy a little too human to deal with tonight?"

"Nah, I haven't felt like trying to munch on him for several weeks now," Elena replied, closing her journal and capping her pen, setting it on the coffee table. She picked up her glass and took a fortifying sip. "I wanted to see you. To talk to you."

Damon lifted an eyebrow as he unstoppered a glass decanter of bourbon. He poured half a glass and drank it before he asked, "Why?"

Elena had an entire little speech prepared. She'd even written it, paragraph after paragraph, taking up nearly two entire pages of her journal. There were so many things she wanted to tell him, things she knew he needed and deserved to hear, but when she opened her mouth she couldn't recall a single word.

So she stood and walked over to him, slowly, as if he would startle and run from her if she moved as quickly as she wanted. Damon stood still, lowering the glass to the cart, obviously trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

She kissed him. Tentatively as first and then wonderingly, leaning up on her toes to wrap her arms around his neck as his hands slid up her back and into her hair without even a hint of hesitation. He held her to him as his lips opened against hers, the slick warmth of his mouth melting away her few lingering misgivings.

Elena whimpered and Damon seized the opportunity and it was Denver all over again and then some – she may have been the one to kiss him but it was Damon who had them stumbling backwards toward the couch. it was Damon who had them tumbling sideways to land in a graceless tangle on the cushions. She was on her back beneath him before she could form a thought beyond 'more.'

His hands seemed to be everywhere at once, skimming and squeezing and smoothing over breasts and hips, her thighs, her ass. Elena bucked beneath him, back arching, hands reaching up to pull his face down to hers as she sought his mouth out, their lips and teeth and sliding tongues reacquainting.

Unlike Denver, this time they weren't outdoors and there was no one around and nothing to stop this from happening. A tingle of pure electricity slid down her spine as she realized that Damon was going to have her, here, right now, in the front parlor of the boarding house.

Elena reached for the top button of his shirt with fingers that trembled, and she hoped he didn't think that meant she wasn't absolutely certain about what was happening between them. Impatient, Damon swatted her hands away and sat up a little, jerking his shirt up over his head and then he had her shirt off as well, tossing them both aside.

Her bra was already askew, shoved aside by his roaming hands, and Damon was too distracted by her nipples to do anything about it. A tiny part of her mind wondered where his usual suave surety had gone. Probably right out the window, she thought, right along with all her pretty words and any sort of self-control.

The tug of his teeth on a sensitive, straining peak had her writhing beneath him. It was too much, it wasn't enough, and he moved with her, his strong hands kneading while his mouth devoured her firm young flesh. She sank her fingers into his hair, to push him away or hold him there she didn't know.

"I've been dreaming of this. I've wanted you for so long," she heard herself blurt out between gasps. It wasn't what she wanted to tell him, it was actually the least important because it was the one thing he already knew she felt for him with any certainty. Elena yelped in surprise when his blunt teeth shifted into sharp fangs at her words, and then they were teeth again and he muttered an apology against her breast, soothing the rapidly healing wound with the lap of his tongue. Maybe he'd needed to hear it said out loud after all, she thought.

He fumbled with the fastening of her pants and it was her turn to swat his hands away, but she no more than had the zipper down before he kneeled on the couch and jerked the denim and her underwear up her legs, leaving her feet in the air. Damon flung her pants across the room and Elena wriggled out of her bra and then she was as naked before him as the day she'd been born.

Gazing down at her, Damon wrapped his hands around her ankles and parted her legs. The scent of her arousal instantly permeated the air between them and for an insane moment she wanted to cover herself with her hands. Heat flooded her face as he drank in the sight of her bare body, lit by the fading afternoon sunlight and the flames flickering away in the fireplace.

"Damon," she said, after the moment stretched beyond what she thought she could bear.

"Just let me look at you, Elena."

She watched him watch her, desire spiraling through her veins to pool low in her belly, and she wanted to reach up and drag him down to her again but the expressions flitting across his face kept her from reaching for him. As she watched, his gaze slid slowly upward, from her open thighs and her wet pussy, up over her quivering belly to her breasts and their hardened nipples, hesitating at her mouth and then their eyes met and she was pinned down by the weight of his stare.

Elena sucked in a breath, struck by the utter aching longing reflected in the depths of his blue eyes. Her heart squeezed an instead of reaching for him, she held his eyes and stretched her arms back over her head and crossed her wrists, letting her hands dangle over the arm. Tugging an ankle free from his grasp, she settled one leg along the back of the couch and drew her knee back, offering herself up to him.

She could feel her dead heart pounding, pounding, pounding away for him, for Damon, and as he surveyed the body spread open beneath him she saw the moment he realized that this was really, truly going to happen.

Turning his head, Damon closed his eyes and pressed a lingering kiss to the side of her calf and Elena felt the sizzle race up the inside of her leg, straight to her groin. His other hand found the foot resting along the couch and his thumb pressed into the arch, the unexpected pleasure drawing a low moan from her. "What did you dream of?"

"This," she answered, her voice breathy and thin even to her own ears. "You," she said. "Us."

Elena bit into her lip as he lowered her leg and scooted backward. The couch was just large enough for him to rest on his belly, his head between her thighs, his hands sliding underneath her to grip her ass and lift her toward his mouth.

She thought he would torture her with soft kisses and nuzzling, but Damon found her clit immediately with the flat of his tongue, pressing hard against it, and she let out a shriek as she bucked against his mouth. Letting out a low laugh, Damon slid his hands up to grasp her hips and hold her still while he licked and tasted her.

After only moments, Elena tugged at his hair, panting his name, and when he lifted his head his eyes were crystal blue surrounded by scarlet. Damon licked the moisture from his lips and she caught a glimpse of fang and then a sudden heat bloomed beneath her own eyes in response. She tugged at him again, pulling at his neck and shoulders with a strength she was still unused to.

"Come here, come here," she pleaded, but Damon took his time kissing his way up her body, resisting her hands easily. She thought he might be trying to regain some control – the few times he'd seen her vampire face, his eyes had darkened with a barely-concealed lust, a markedly different response than everyone else's reaction.

Settling on top of her, Damon cradled her face in his hands, thumbs sweeping over the veins writhing across her cheekbones. "Elena," was all he said but his voice told her everything she already knew – how much he wanted her, how much he loved her, how he would never leave her even if she never loved him back.

Elena leaned up and kissed him as she drew her legs back along his sides, reaching down between their bodies to guide him.

He pushed and she stretched to take him, eyes drifting shut, and they shifted together as his cock slid inside her. Every nerve ending in her body felt like it was on fire, the feel of him overwhelming her system, and just when she thought he was going to fry her amplified senses she felt his fangs sink into her throat.

Damon let go after taking no more than a sip or two, pulling back to thrust again, and Elena struck without conscious thought – her fangs sinking into the crook of his neck just as his hips snapped forward. Elena drank gulping mouthfuls of his blood as he came with a harsh groan, thrusting a third time before he spilled himself inside her, his entire body shuddering with his release.

Lost in bloodlust and the feel of him, she continued to drink from Damon as he whispered his love into her ear, continued to drink until the moment he told her to stop. "That's enough, now, honey. Enough. Dinner isn't included."

Elena's fangs retracted and she pulled away to watch his wound heal. "That was a disaster, I'm sorry," she said, when she could speak, so far past embarrassed that her face felt like it was on fire, flushed with his blood.

"My fault," Damon said, resting his forehead on the pillow beneath her head. "I bit you first. I should have known better, you're too new to handle it without getting your wires crossed. Besides, it wasn't a disaster on my end. Just quick."

"Let's try to keep our fangs to ourselves next time," she said. "Okay?"

"No promises Knowing us, we won't get this right until at least the third try."

They lay together as twilight faded into evening, the crackling of the fire loud in the quiet of the room. A human would have long since grown uncomfortable, she thought, but she was no longer human. As a vampire, she could stay like this, hold him just like this, for as long as she chose to do so.

As a vampire, she had the strength to bear the weight of Damon for as long as she wanted.

She didn't tell him she loved him as her hands slowly stroked through his hair and down his back, over and over, smoothing over cooling skin as she listened to his dead heart settle into its regular, steady beat, but she thought he might know it anyway.

Elena smiled as he pressed his face against her throat and gave the blood drying on her skin a lazy lick, reminding her body that only one of them had reached that special destination on this particular journey.

Desire reignited within her and she shifted her hips, bucking the slightest bit beneath him. Damon laughed tiredly, delightedly, and she felt the sound rumble through his chest and into her own, tightening her nipples.

"I'll get you there, baby, don't worry," he promised, turning his head slightly to bite gently at the line of her jaw. She could feel the smirk against her skin. "Just give me a minute to recover. You know, from the _blood loss,_" he teased.

"I'm not worried," she said, tilting her head to the side to give him better access, eyes closing on a sigh as his mouth trailed kisses along her bloodied throat. "We have plenty of time."


End file.
